KYOTO!

Hey everyone! After a few days of traveling from LA to the Narita Airport, to the train ride into Tokyo Station, to the overnight bus ride into Hanzano station in Kyoto, to the full day of wandering aimlessly around the downtown area and figuring out the bus routes, I am sitting on my bed in my 16th century, air-conditioned, Zen Buddhist temple, connected to the wireless internet. Something about all this seems not quite real? Maybe it's the irony of the accommodations, or it could be the novelty of my first few days alone in a foreign (very foreign) country, or the new found adventure of traveling as a vegetarian, or the fact that the last few days were not organized by someone else so I had to find my own way around in a place that has a lot less English than I expected. Whatever it is I have had a fun 72 hours but I don't think it has quite sunk in yet. I will miss Oregon and already do miss Kaitlin, but this should be an amazing 7 weeks. Right now I am having an Asahi beer from a case that our host priest, Taka bought for us and looking forward to the rest of the students' arrivals and the program starting up tomorrow morning. 

So I wanted to settle in, catch up on some email and start posting pictures because I will probably get backed up pretty fast. Click on any of the pictures below to go to the full album:

All I saw of Tokyo while I was waiting for my bus. I will be heading back with Andrew during the 6th week of the trip.

The Hanzano Station after an 8-hour journey (7 of which I slept!)

The entrance path into Myoshinji - A large complex of several individual temples

A Detail of one of the temples 

The entrance to the Skinkyogoku Covered Arcade

Some of the food on display at this covered market

 Some more of the food

Pretty colors

More pretty colors and food

Old versus New is a common theme here in Kyoto